Evaluation of Urban Landmarks Based on Primary and Secondary Points of Interest: The Case of Museums in the City of Athens in Greece

Last years, there has been a substantial shift of travelers from leisure trips to trips in search of new experiences and understanding of the world we live in, and that is why new forms of alternative tourism are constantly gaining ground against traditional ones. Even within an urban destination, traditional tourist attractions are reshaping and adapting their content to become attractive and high priority visiting points. So, in this work, we will study the case of museum tourism inside an urban destination. Museums are considered to be an important and distinctive destination in a city, especially due to local identity and heritage promotion. Scholars and stakeholders are well- aware that museums are a critical component in the creation of effective tourism products and that they contribute significantly to the economic sustainability of a destination. At the time of writing this paper, the conditions have matured and an in-depth study of the actual contribution of museums to urban tourism is, now, required. Considering the rapid development of urban destinations, there is a need to study museums, no longer as independent tourist attractions but as integral parts of an urban web. So, in this work, we present a model for evaluating museums as points of interest in an urban destination. The proposed quantitative model is based on the spatial proximity of existent and well-defined primary, secondary, and tertiary points of interest with well-known museums. The proposed model is applied to the city of Athens in Greece, and based on the derived results, a classification of the importance and potential of these museums is proposed.